Reclosable bags are commonly used to hold and enclose food and other products. In one application, reclosable bags are used for portioning merchandise at the site of sale. For example, at a deli counter or grocery store, portions of food are weighed, enclosed in a reclosable bag (e.g., a zippered deli bag), and marked with a sale price. When food or other merchandise is packaged in this manner, it is beneficial to provide customers with confidence that the contents of the bag are protected in the packaging. For example, where the price of the merchandise is a function of weight, a customer should have confidence that none of the contents of the bag were removed after packaging. Likewise, it may be important for a customer to know that the contents of the bag have not been touched by an unauthorized person, which could potentially contaminate the merchandise.
There are at least two ways of providing a customer certainty that the contents of a bag have not been manipulated after packaging. One way is to package the merchandise while the customer is watching and immediately deliver the package over to the customer. This provides the customer with firsthand knowledge of the entire chain of control of the bagged merchandise. Another way to offer a customer certainty is to use features that provide evidence of tampering. In one example, an adhesive seal is placed over the reclosable closure to prevent using the closure without first breaking the seal. The seal provides tamper evidence because either the seal or bag must be torn open to access the contents of the bag after packaging. However, when the customer removes the seal, it can cause damage to the bag or leave adhesive residue on the closure that affects the operation of the closure. Thus, after the adhesive seal is removed, the bag may no longer be usable by the customer for storing the food because the bag enclosure is compromised because of damage caused in removing the adhesive seal.